Hope and Redemption
by Pie for President '16
Summary: Story of Sophie Mitchell, daughter of Lucy Camden and Mike Pierce, raising her half-sister, Brooklyn. Details in introductory paragraph at beginning of story.
1. Introduction

Hello! A new story after a five-month hiatus. I know, I have all those others that I need to finish. But I've been literally _obsessed_ with this story for going on three years now. Not this particularly, but the AU Camden-verse where this takes place in.

Speaking of which, this AU Camden-verse is originally from "Our Damnation". Yes, I am one half of "Evil Geniuses". :P I've removed the final two chapters to "Our Damnation" to better begin this story, as it ends with the POV of the main character here.

I own Carla. Me and my evil genius buddy owns Sophie Mitchell. Oh, and the perverse Camden-verse belongs to us as well! It won't be relevant in this story, though, for a while, so that's why the fic will seem incredibly original when it isn't.

* * *

"… and they remained best friends until they were grown up. Now, I want you to write me a story about a best friend you have. It doesn't have to be a person, it can be a pet you have." Sophie Mitchell told her second grade class as she finished reading _Joy of Friendships_ to her students.

The teacher observing her in the background gave her a discreet thumbs-up and Sophie nodded shortly. She loved having the opportunity to be an intern at the elementary school as she studied for her master's degree in early childhood education.

Her adopted mother had been a teacher, emphasizing that education came first in the household. Friends, television and playing all came second. That was probably why Sophie had been on the honor roll all four years of high school. It was actually her mom—the woman who adopted her, of course—who had encouraged her to pursue teaching.

Sophie walked around the classroom, glancing at her students' stories as she made her way through the aisles of tables. The door opened, distracting Sophie and her students.

"Ms. Mitchell, may I have a word with you?" Sophie's heart fell to her stomach. Did she do something wrong? She never got to see the report from the teacher whose class she was interning for the semester, so maybe he wrote a bad report?

Her students looked up and, being the curious second graders they were, looked intently between Sophie and the assistant principal wanting to hear more.

"Okay. Continue writing your stories, I'll be back soon." Sophie smiled at her students and left the classroom.

"Is something wrong?"

The assistant principal laughed.

"You can relax; it's nothing bad. It's just about your sister."

_My sister?_ Sophie wondered, confused. She didn't say another word and continued to walk down towards the principal's office. When she got there, the principal was on the phone, listening to whoever was talking.

"She's here now." The principal looked up and handed Sophie the phone, which she took.

"Hello, Sophie Mitchell here." She looked between the two school faculty members, confused still.

"Hello, Ms. Mitchell. This is Beth Daniels from Child Protection Service in Glen Oak, California. I'm calling you regarding your sister. It's important that you show up as soon as possible."

"Ok, I'll be there. Thanks for calling."

"Hope to see you soon, goodbye." The woman hung up and Sophie handed the phone back to the principal.

"You're excused for the week, Ms. Mitchell. You may go."

"What? No, I can't. I have my students. I don't even have a sister there, all my sisters are in New Jersey."

"The woman told me that it's your half-sister. Now please, don't argue with me anymore, Ms. Mitchell. Go, I'll take care of the plane ticket."

Sophie nodded, feeling numb. She left the room and headed towards her car. As she walked, she pulled out her cell phone to call her best friend and roommate, Carla. After a few rings, the woman picked up.

"Carla, I have to go to California. Something about my half-sister, I don't know."

"I didn't even know you had a half-sister."

"Yeah." Sophie unlocked the door to her car and got in. "Savannah. But why is child protection service calling me? First of all, I think she's an adult now."

"Same mother or same father?"

"We have the same mom. I only met them once, and it was a _nightmare_. I didn't think I'd ever have to go back there again."

"Want me to come with you?"

"Could you?"

"Of course! I'll begin packing."

"Great, thanks. You're the best, Carla."

Sophie smiled and hung up, starting the car and driving off.

So many thoughts were going through her head as she drove back to her apartment. _What half-sister? It can't be Savannah, so who is it? They never found her dad, so it has to be another child her mother had. Why were they calling her? How did they even find her? What was she going to expect when she landed in California? Would it be another nightmarish scenario like the one she stumbled upon over five years earlier?_

Carla was already standing in the parking lot of the apartment complex with their luggage when Sophie pulled in. Once they were loaded into the car and Carla had jumped into the passenger seat, they were off to the airport in Indianapolis.

"I'm freaking out, Carla." Sophie said, gripping the wheel as she drove through traffic on Interstate 74.

"I'll be right with you the whole time, Sophie. It's going to be fine, trust me."

"What do they even want with me? It better not to be me taking this child in, because I'm in no way prepared to deal with a child. Not yet, not anytime soon."

"We'll see when we get there. Sophie, you have to calm down and take a breath."

Sophie nodded and they remained silent for the remainder of the drive to the airport.


	2. Chapter 1

Here is the actual first chapter of the story! :)

* * *

"This place looks just the same, but I doubt it is actually the same as it was last time I was here." Sophie commented, looking outside the window as Carla drove the rental car through Glen Oak.

"I thought you've only been here once?"

"I was, but I'm sure that nightmare of a Christmas changed this town."

"What is this nightmare you keep referring to?" Carla asked, pulling into a parking space outside a building.

"I'll tell you later." Sophie replied, unbuckling and stepping out of the car. She looked up at the building in front of her.

The building itself was nearly windowless and its exterior walls were a dark grey, giving Sophie the impression that it was not such a warm and welcoming place.

"Are we at the right place?" Carla asked, coming to stand by her friend.

"Yeah, it is. Come on, let's go inside." Sophie headed towards the doors with Carla following.

Once inside the dimly lit building, Sophie immediately got a whiff of the foul stench of urine. She could hear Carla gagging behind her.

"Oh, God."

Sophie inhaled through her nose and strode forward towards the receptionist's desk.

"Hi, I'm Sophie Mitchell. I got a call this morning about my sister."

"Mhmm," the woman murmured without looking up. She handed Sophie a clipboard with a single sheet of paper attached. "Take this and fill it out. The child will be brought out momentarily."

Sophie and Carla exchanged looks and sat in the far corner of the room, away from the stench. The two friends sat quietly as Sophie filled out the form, signed it, and handed it back to the woman behind the desk.

"Ms. Sophie Mitchell?" A voice came some half an hour later. Sophie looked up to see a middle-aged woman, tall and stern, approaching her. She was holding an infant in one arm and a thick folder in another.

"Yeah, that's me." The younger woman replied.

"This is your sister, Brooklyn Camden, and these are her files." Carla quickly stood and took Brooklyn while Sophie took the folder that was thrust in her face. Before either had a chance to say anything, the woman was gone.

Once they were outside, Sophie turned to Carla, her eyes wide and squeaked frantically.

"That's… that's all?" Sophie cried.

"We're getting a seat. I'll drive, you hold Brooklyn." Carla placed Brooklyn in Sophie's arm, getting into the car. After a minute of hesitation, looking between Brooklyn and the dreadful building, Sophie got into the car. Sophie placed the folder in the back seat and held Brooklyn.

"All right, this is the way to Babies Inc." Carla announced, exiting the freeway. Sophie looked at the infant in her arm, there was a faint bruise on her forehead and her little arm was in a sling. Sophie dreaded thinking about what this child had been through before CPS took her away.

After an hour of carefully investigating every single seat the store provided, Sophie had finally picked one out and secured it in the car.

"I feel like I'm in the Sims: this is completely unreal. There's no instruction, whatsoever. How do I know what she likes and what she doesn't like? Is she allergic to anything? What about medical issues, because I'm sure she has some."

"It's probably all in the files, Soph." Carla told her, pulling out her phone and dialing.

"Hi, this is Carla Anderson; I'd like three tickets for the next plane to Newark. There's one leaving in an hour? You can? Great, thank you!"

"We're going to New Jersey?" Sophie asked once Carla had hung up.

"Yep, we're going to see your parents. Your mom will know what to do."

_She is right, after all, her mother had raised eight children; some were her own while others were adopted._

It wasn't long before they'd arrived at the airport, pulled out their luggage and the car seat, paid for the flight, and boarded the plane.

"We should call Mom." Sophie said, digging in her purse for her cell phone. Holding Brooklyn securely in one arm, Sophie began dialing the familiar number to the house she grew up in.

"Mom, it's me, Soph. Carla and I are on the way to Jersey. Something unexpected happened and I need your help."

"Sophie," Sharon Mitchell's voice came through the line. "What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into? You're not pregnant, are you?"

"No, mom! Why would you think that? It does involve a baby, but it's different. You'll see what I mean when I get there."

"Are you leaving Indianapolis now?"

"No, we're in California." Sophie replied, pausing when she heard the pilot coming on the loudspeaker, greeting his passengers.

"Mom, I have to go, we're about to take off. Love you, bye."

"Bye, dear, have a safe flight. Love you too."

Sophie hung up and shut her phone off, throwing it back in her purse.

"Do you want me to take her?" Carla offered after they'd taken off.

"No, I'm fine." Sophie yawned, closing her eyes. At some point, she dozed off and woke to hear the pilot announce they were just half an hour from landing in Newark.

She opened her eyes and saw that Brooklyn was no longer in her lap and looked over to see Carla holding her in one arm, looking out the window.

"Hey."

Carla looked back at her and smiled.

"Hey, sleepy. We're almost here."

"I know, how has she been?"

"She's been great; napped for a little bit and I fed her a few times."

"You read the files, didn't you?" Sophie could tell Carla had from her sad green eyes and the remains of tear-stains on her cheeks.

Carla nodded.

"I figured it had to be pretty bad and I wanted to spare you the pain. I'm glad I did, this baby has gone through things no babies, or children, should go through. You met them that one time, right? What were they like, were they really that bad?"

Sophie let out a sigh.

"Well, I had already known I was adopted by the time I turned eighteen. So, the summer after graduating high school, I did some research hoping to find my birth parents. They never found my dad but my mom was living in California, in Glen Oak, where we just were. I decided to go out there on Christmas and I'll never forget it for as long as I live. I arrived, expecting homemade cookies, Christmas Carols and exchanging presents. But what I got was none of those."

"Really?"

Sophie nodded, gazing at the seat in front of her.

"It was awful." She whispered. "There was this girl running down the street, half-naked and crying. She said her uncle or brother—something like that—had raped her. Then these other people came out of the house, the old woman looked like she just had the crap beaten out of her. This one woman, she was that little girl's mother, started yelling at the old woman. Police showed up not long afterwards and it was literally chaos. I left that night; it was five and a half years ago and I hadn't been back there since. Until today."

"Wow." Carla breathed. Sophie knew her best friend was in just as much shock as she was.


	3. Chapter 2

Here's chapter 2! Time will progress a bit slowly at the beginning, but it will speed up a bit eventually.

* * *

As happy as Sophie had been to leave New Jersey when she began college at the age of nineteen, going back to the small town of Dover always brought a kind and gentle warmth to her stomach. This is where she grew up; from the time she was an infant, all through her childhood, and into her early adult years. She remembered the days she spent playing with her siblings and friends at the park across the street from the elementary school.

Those days became less frequent due to the changing times and the fact she, her siblings, and their friends were getting older. School became more important and people grew up, falling out of touch with one another. Sophie still had those few friends she kept in touch with over the years since graduating high school. Most of her siblings were grown up and have moved out of the house, out of Dover, and even out of New Jersey. Three of them already had families of their own. Only two of her siblings, Chloe and Abby, were home.

Now, Sophie was on her way to the familiar suburbs, the place she called home for so many years. This home, where she grew up, embraced love, family, education, and self-sufficiency. It was all thanks to her parents, David and Sharon Mitchell. Brooklyn began fussing in Sophie's arm, bringing the older woman out of her thoughts.

"I know, you've had a long day." Sophie whispered, brushing back Brooklyn's light brown hair.

"Which street was it again?" Carla asked. They'd just passed the sign welcoming them into Dover and the sounds from the city were long gone.

"Morristown Ave." Sophie answered, instructing her friend to take a left two lights down.

Within ten minutes, they were pulling into the driveway of the house Sophie called home until just five years earlier. The exterior of the house and the lawn looked the same as it did when Sophie began to attend Northwestern University, over seven hundred miles away in Illinois.

Once they were all unbuckled and the two adults had their luggage trailing them, they walked up the brick path leading to the front door. The outside lights were already on and Sophie wondered if her family was having dinner right now.

She rang the doorbell, holding Brooklyn securely in her arm. After a few seconds, a girl of about fourteen or fifteen answered. Her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing pajamas.

"Sophie!" The girl cried, hugging Sophie tightly. Sophie smiled and returned the hug as best as she could.

"Hey, Chloe."

Once Sophie and Chloe pulled apart, Chloe stepped aside to let Sophie and Carla in.

"Mom said you would be here soon, she's in the kitchen making dinner."

"You guys haven't eaten? It's almost nine!"

"We have, but you haven't."

At that moment, Sophie realized for the first time that she hadn't eaten anything all day. She just had cereal and a banana for breakfast; she'd packed a sandwich for lunch but never had the chance to eat it.

_Wow, that seems so long ago!_

"Let me take her, I'm sure you could use a break." Chloe offered, holding out her hands.

"Thanks. Be careful" Sophie smiled and handed Brooklyn to her sister.

"You have her?" Sophie asked once Brooklyn was handed over, looking over the baby sling-covered arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I know you haven't been here, but I have _plenty_ of experience with babies. Well, I should get back to Abby and our movie. Wanna join us, Carla?" Chloe waved briefly before walking into the living room.

"Good luck." Carla told Sophie, following Chloe into the living room.

Sophie sighed and headed off in the opposite direction, where the kitchen was.

"Hi, Mom."

"Sophie! It is great to see you." Sharon Mitchell turned from the counter and rushed over to the younger woman.

"You too, mom." Sophie smiled, giving her mother a tight hug before pulling away.

"So, sit down and talk to me."

Sophie pulled out a chair and sat down, letting out a sigh.

"Well, I was at work this morning when I got a call from Child Protection Service in California about my half-sister. I had no idea what half-sister they were talking about but I still went out there and Carla offered to come with me. I get there, the place was _horrible_ and it smelled so bad. They just had me fill out a form and then literally gave me the baby. It was Carla's idea to come here, she knew you could help me."

"I see." Sharon said. By now, she was sitting at the table with Sophie.

"What am I supposed to do, Mom? I can't raise a baby, I can hardly take care of myself."

"Sophie, my dear, you _can_ do this."

"I _can't_, Mom! I'm in graduate school, I have work, I live in a two-bedroom apartment."

"But you won't be working all summer, and you don't have classes again for a few months. Your father and I have discussed this, we're willing to have you stay with us until August. We will help you with the baby until you feel comfortable enough with her on your own."

"Then what, Mom? I'm supposed to fly back to Indianapolis with a baby? Where will I live and who's going to help me? What about school and work?"

"Sophie, there are _plenty_ of ways to raise a child while going to school and working. For starters, you have Carla; you know she would be more than happy to help out. Chloe has already helped me look up nanny services in your area, we must've found at least a dozen. I'm sure other teachers at the school have children of their own, you could ask them for some tip and advice on raising a child."

Sophie let out a sigh. Her mother did have a point; the resources available were nearly endless. Maybe she could take a reduced course-load in the fall, extending the time it took until she got her Master's degree, she could stay with Brooklyn. Or maybe she could take a term off from teaching and school to focus on Brooklyn. Or maybe—

"You have plenty of time to think about it, Sophie. Now, why don't you go get Carla? You need to eat and then sleep, it's getting late."

Sophie nodded and stood.

_This is just the beginning_. She thought as she walked into the living room.


End file.
